Yo ‘Build The Wall’ Peeps: Construction Is Getting A ‘Yuge’ Cash Infusion — Here’s The 411
For all the Democrat (and RINO) objections to getting it done, Trump is STILL finding a way to build that wall.
Trump has faced a Republican Congress that was unwilling or unable to get it done, stalling tactics by Chuck Schumer, #restance tactics and direct opposition from Nancy Pelosi’s House, and any number of court challenges.
And yet, Trump still found a way to move it forward. And he didn’t even have to take a page out of Obama’s playbook and throw out the Constitution to push forward his agenda.
He got creative, in finding solutions, sure. But he remained within the four corners of powers that were within his authority.
Here’s what we know:
President Donald Trump will transfer another $7.2 billion from Pentagon accounts in 2020 to build the promised border wall, according to the Washington Post.
The paper reported January 13 that the president would use his national emergency powers to:
divert an additional $7.2 billion in Pentagon funding for border wall construction this year, five times what Congress authorized him to spend on the project in the 2020 budget, according to internal planning figures obtained by The Washington Post.
The Pentagon funds would be extracted, for the second year in a row, from military construction projects and counternarcotics funding. According to the plans, the funding would give the government enough money to complete [a total of] approximately 885 miles of new fencing by spring 2022, far more than the 509 miles the administration has slated for the U.S. border with Mexico.
The pending transfer, if not blocked by Congress or the courts, would bump up his border wall spending to $18.4 billion.
So far, Trump’s deputies have built a little over 100 miles of upgraded “wall system” and are in the process of planning and building another 350 miles.
Source: Breitbart
Now, the objection to this funding will be (as it has been before) that this takes money away from Pentagon budgets and makes Americans less safe in the process.
Let’s have a Senator with some actual real-world knowledge answer that question. Hugh Hewitt pitched that question to Senator Inhofe at the end of an interview covering some other topics, including Impeachment, Iran and the Navy Budget. Here are the closing questions of the interview:
HH: Last question, Senator Inhofe, I know you’re waiting for a plane, the President has diverted another $7.5 billion dollars from the Pentagon budget to build the fence. I’m all for that, by the way. I believe that that is an absolutely necessary visible expression of an inward resolve to control our border. Do you think it hurts in any way any acquisition of importance to the military?
JI: Well, yeah, it is important. And you know, you’re talking to the right person, because I was a builder and developer on that border down there for 25 years. I know the border. I know it. I also know that when our troops are down there, they’re getting training that is better than their in-house training they get at home. And so this is taking place right now. And you’ve got to keep in mind. That border is, we’re not talking about Mexico. We’re talking about terrorists coming across that border. And we are in the position to stop that now.
HH: So you support the diversion of funds to build the wall?
JI: Yeah, I do.
HH: And does it in any way negatively impact the military, because I don’t think it does. I don’t think we lose a ship. I don’t think we lose a missile. I think we lose some facilities that would otherwise be built on bases.
JI: No, and the reason I say that, Hugh, is that they’re getting a type of training. Those individuals are getting a training that’s much more valuable than the training that they would get at fort, and that’s not, you know, that value has to be considered, because we’re going to spend X dollars on training in the military anyway. Let’s do it where it’s most effective. Let’s do it where we could do that and also solve the border problem.
Source: Hugh Hewitt